“Today’s Ukraine. Golgotha”: a Ukrainian military man presented his painting to the Holodomor Museum

Considering his short stay in Kyiv, defender of Ukraine Taras Bobrovsky visited our museum today to present a gift. This is a painting of his authorship entitled “Today’s Ukraine. Golgotha”. “It was created under the influence of the first massive shelling, which began with the appointment of General Surovikin as the commander of the Russian troops,” the author shared. — In my painting, I depicted a сolumn with broken wires as a reminder of today’s realities. At the same time, it is like a cross that we have been carrying for centuries only because we have such a neighbour next to us. It is our curse, our hard fate. In addition, this cross is an image of the persistence of tragic events: from the Holodomor to the present day.”

It is noteworthy that the transfer of the painting took place on the day of another massive shelling of Ukraine, with which Russia continues to terrorize the civilian population of our cities and villages in cold blood.

The Holodomor did not affect the family of Taras Bobrovsky, who was born in Lviv and grew up in Rivne because his family lived in the territories not yet occupied by the Bolsheviks. However, with the arrival of the Soviets, the family was subjected to oppression and repression – part of the family was evicted from their native places. The current generation did not escape the Russian terror. In order to protect his country, Taras Bobrovsky, who used to live and work in Norway before the war, returned to his homeland and was mobilized into the army as he is a military man by education.

The author of the painting is not a professional artist and assures that painting is his hobby. He is sincerely glad that his work (made, by the way, at a high artistic level) will now be kept in the Holodomor Museum.  “My good friend, ethnographer and founder of the “Mrii Marii” (eng. Mary’s Dreams) project, Maryna Senchylo encouraged me to do this, and I am so grateful for this to her. Because it was the right decision,” says Mr Taras. We are sincerely grateful to both of them for their attention to our museum and the wonderful gift.

“The funds replenishing is one of the main functions of every museum,”Lesia Hasydzhak, Acting Director General of the Holodomor Museum. — And although the state has not financed this item of expenditure for many years, the state part of the Museum Fund of Ukraine is growing. At the expense of benefactors and donors. The Holodomor Museum is not an exception. It is a great honour for us when an author comes and donates his work. Especially the one that is a symbolic bridge between the events of 90 years ago, the Holodomor, and the current genocide committed by modern Russia during the war in Ukraine.”

Dear friends, if you have survived photos, documents or any other things related to the period of the Holodomor genocide or material evidence of the current genocide, if you have works of art on this topic and are ready to donate them to the Museum, please write to us by e-mail [email protected], in private messages on our Facebook page or call +38 044 254 45 12. Let’s preserve the memory together!